Fighting for search results position for the search terms you care about is a battle. It takes training and technique to win, but first you have to pick your battle. One of the keys to SEO success is to understand your adversary, and lets be honest, they are your adversary. They are competing for the hearts and minds of your customers and prospects.
An interesting fact is that many website owners may not be aware of who their digital competition are. There are a number of reasons for this. Your online competitor may not be the organization with a large market share. They may not be the guys with the biggest booth at the trade show. They may not be the guy you lost your last account to.
A effective SEO program monitors who your online competitors are from week to week and month to month. The common, and wrong way to track your SEO competition is to use a couple of your favorite search phrases, and see where you land in comparison to the sites you are used to looking at. However, this tends to miss new competitors and changes in both the marketplace and search algorithms that affect your SERP placement. Here are some techniques that we use to keep you aware of your competition.
- We use professional tools that analyse your competitors website content to discover search words and phrases you may not be targeting.
- Look at your visitor traffic to determine the mix of devices. Perform both desktop and mobile searches to assure that we are meeting the search profiles your visitors use.
- Use professional tools to analyse related search terms to make sure that you are targeting the terms with the highest search volume.
- Use newly found search phrases to find new competitors. Adjust strategy as needed to compete with them.
